PML-N double standards: a short but high-profile tale

ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain would not be issued a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) unless he applies again by appearing in the High Commission of Pakistan in London. His earlier application, according to sources in the Interior Ministry, has been trashed. The ministry is angry with a National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) official working with Pakistan’s High Commission in the United Kingdom for providing any senior citizen registration services at the doorstep. The official has been directed to report back to Islamabad, amid an inquiry for being so courteous. “He was directed by the high commissioner to visit the residence of Altaf Hussain with the mobile registration unit for processing his application for a Pakistani identity card,” says a source privy to the development in London.Given the standard practice of NADRA, its London-based employee had not been doing a favour to the controversial Pakistani-British, but providing doorstep services to “VVIPs and senior citizens”. In a similar case, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister’s daughter, had recently summoned a mobile registration team for renewal of her computerised national identity card. While a self-exiled Hussain awaits any news about his NICOP plea, the prime minister’s daughter was issued the CNIC the same day she had applied for.